A riot a boxing match featuring Derby's Myron Mills left a teenager fighting for his life and "should have been avoided".

Chairs and glasses were thrown as violence erupted between rival fans in the late stages of a title contest involving Mills at Walsall Town Hall on Saturday night.

The trouble then spilled outside, where a 19-year-old, believed to be a local man, was reportedly stabbed and taken to hospital in a critical condition. Another man has been treated for non-life threatening injuries.

Around 100 people were involved in the fighting inside the hall, which started in the ninth round of a 10-round IBF Youth Lightweight title bout between Mills, a highly-rated 21-year-old from the One Nation gym in Derby, and West Midlands fighter Luke Paddock.

Forensics teams at work on the scene in Walsall (Image: Birmingham Mail)

Mills, who stepped in at short notice to take the fight, was the winner by a majority points decision but his manager and uncle, Clifton Mitchell, said the crowd trouble took the shine off what could be a big stepping stone in the career of his young boxer.

Mitchell is also owner of Security Alert UK, which has grown to be one of the leading events security companies in the country and regularly oversees crowd safety at world title and top domestic boxing events involving tens of thousands of fans at major venues such as the O2 Arena in London.

From his position in the Mills’ corner when the riot broke out, Mitchell said he could see the violence should have been snuffed out more effectively.

“I’m not saying anybody is to blame but I know that when you have got a situation like this there are certain things you can put in place as a security company to make sure it doesn’t all go off like it did here,” he said.

A riot started in the late stages of the contest featuring Myron Mills

“Myron had about 50 people there to support him and there were lots more there for Paddock. There was only an aisle between them and it first went off between two groups in the eighth.

“Security stopped it then but once you have separated them, you have to stay between them. They didn’t and it went off again in the ninth.